My long-time membership to the Community Boat Project has lead me in many ways to doubt my intuition. It works like this: I’m presented with a task. I think about it a little and come up with what I’m sure is a foolproof and efficient plan. I begin to execute the plan. Invariably, at this point, some other volunteer will wonder by, and show me some incredible simple trick to increase my comfort, ease, and efficiency.

When I first came to the Community Boat Project, I was embarrassed to see almost all of my foolproof plans shatter. Now, I have become a little more humble. I have come to expect tricks. I almost rely on them. My ability to come up with my own tricks has grown, too.

Never the less, the speed at which that hunk of glued up fir became a neat and discernible spar. Chris (who has sworn up and down he doesn’t know what he’s doing) rigged up some kind of super-sander rolling a belt of sand paper around an empty spool of rope, and attached an electric drill (corded) to the whole shebang for power. I’ve come to regard Chris as the meticulous master of tricks. It seems he is forever asking the question “Can I show you a trick?”